In optimism and happiness, Brazilians remain unbeatable

According to the book A Nova Classe Média (“The New Middle Class”) written by FGV’s Marcelo Neri, Brazil is the world champion of “future happiness”. The statement is based on a study by Gallup.

On a grade scale of zero to ten, Brazilians gave an average score of 8.6 on their expectation of “life satisfaction by 2015”. Brazil overcame all the 158 countries surveyed. The world average was 6.7. Brazil beat all other BRIC countries by a large margin: Russia scored 6.4 (105th place), China 6.2 (111th place) and India 6.1 (119th place).

The author is also working on another survey that shows how the European crisis has not reached the pocket of Brazil, which had its poverty rates falling by 7.9% and inequality going down by 2.1%.